WILMINGTON, Del., March 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — AstraZenecaÃ‚Â announced today that it has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey against IVAX Corporation, IVAX Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Zenith Laboratories, Inc. (collectively “IVAX”), and IVAX’s parent, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and its US subsidiary, Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, for willful infringement of AstraZeneca’s patents protecting NEXIUMÃ‚Â® (esomeprazole magnesium).

The lawsuit is in response to an Abbreviated New Drug Application filed by IVAX with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration regarding IVAX’s intent to market a generic version of AstraZeneca’s NEXIUM in the US prior to the expiration of five AstraZeneca Patents: 5,714,504; 5,877,192; 6,369,085; 6,428,810; and 6,875,872. The expiration dates for these patents range from 2014 through to 2019.

AstraZeneca has full confidence in and will continue vigorously to defend and enforce its intellectual property rights protecting NEXIUM